Well once again another year has come and gone and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it as I moved from one art adventure to another. I am growing more and making more connections. Here are some things that happened to me over the past year.

1) Sold not one original, but TWO!

This was definitely an exciting thing to happen in any artist’s career. As far as I was concerned, selling two originals was brisk business! The first piece I sold was “Nine Ladies Dancing” which was in March. The buyer was a church member who saw the piece at a church event the year prior.

My second piece was “Mercy,” a pen and watercolor pencil drawing. This sale was unexpected considering that I typically fare better at selling prints at this particular venue. Needless to say I was pleasantly surprised!

It’s funny, you never what’s going to sell. It clearly is a timing thing where you have the right buyer at the right place.

By the way, to help me get through my post sale separation anxiety, I made sure that both of my originals were photographed for reproduction before putting them up for sale. I can always make more!

2) First time showing my work for an extended length of time.

In January I was invited to show some work with another group of artists at this small performing arts center outside of Durham for the month of February. It was the first time that I had displayed work for an extended period of time, not to mention the center was about three hours away from home. Again, I had to deal with separation anxiety as I left my pieces behind for a whole month.

I had never hung multiple works of art on a wall for show before. While there are some similarities to hanging work at your house, it’s still not the same. I did some research on hanging art because I didn’t want to jack up the wall with a bunch of nail holes making it look as if there were woodpeckers having a party. It turned out pretty well in the end even though it took me forever. Later I was able to apply my new skills at my sister’s solo exhibit.

3) Helping with a Solo Exhibit.

This was a learning experience even though most of it was second-hand. My sister did a solo photography exhibit in Brooklyn called “Visions of New York.” First off, just from the outside looking in, it’s a lot of work. After she identified her location, which was the Brooklyn Art Space, she marketed the heck out of her event through the use of social media and also did some fundraising using the online tool called Indiegogo (you may also be familiar with a similar program called Kickstarter). She also printed and mailed free postcards of her work to contributors who sent in monetary donations.

A couple of days before the event, I flew into New York to provide whatever support that was needed. On the day of the event, with the help of her friends, we were sweating it out getting everything ready up until the final minute. The turnout was great. She sold quite a few items including one of her large framed prints. At the end of the night the lady who worked on staff said that it was one of the most well hung shows that she had seen.

So I’m saying all this to point out that I learned a lot about putting on a solo exhibit just through reading my sister’s social media posts , listening to her on the phone as she talked about her process, and just physically being there to assist. One thing’s for sure, when I get to the point to where I do one of my own, I really won’t have much time for anything else!

Looking at the posts from the past year or two, it seemed like this was all I ever wrote about. I added a sixth piece to the collection this year – “ Partridge In A Pear Tree.” I created an earlier version a few years ago but decided to create a new one because it fit better with the rest of the collection. I also packaged the cards for sale, even though it was just six of the twelve days. I am happy with how they turned out although I just wish that I had more time to market them. That’s always the challenge with getting any new work out there in the market.

5) Increasing my number of followers on social media

So I don’t exactly have this huge army of followers but I am happy to have followers and that the numbers have increased steadily from last year. The hardest part of course is keeping up with this blog. I do want to announce that this is my 51st blog post! Many thanks to those of you who have visited my blog and followed me! It really means a lot.

I’ve learned to manage my Facebook page a little better. I just have to be mindful of the best times to post so that I can increase my reach. The same also goes for my blog. As for Twitter, man, who knows? I still am trying to figure out how to say something profound in 140 characters or less!